. Yet the likelihood of _Menap_,
being the same word as the _Menai_ of the _Menai Straits_ in Wales,
suggests the probability of that word being a geographical term.
Nevertheless, the contiguity of the two nations is an argument as far as
it goes.

And here I must remark, that the process by which words originally very
different may become identified when they pass into a fresh language is
not sufficiently attended to. _Cauci_ is the form which an Irish,
_Chauci_ that which a German, word takes in Latin. And the two words are
alike. Yet it is far from certain that they would be thus similar if we
knew either the Gaelic original of one, or the German of the other. A
dozen forms exceedingly different might be excogitated, which, provided
that they all agreed in being strange to a Roman, would, when moulded
into a Latin form, become alike. Still the argument, as far as it goes,
is valid.

Such are the reasons for believing, at one and the same time, that the
Britons came from Belgic Gaul, and that the Belgae from whence they came
were Kelts.

We cannot, however, so far consider the origin of the British branch of
the Keltic stock to be disposed of, as to proceed forthwith to the
Gaelic; another population requires a previous notice. This is the
Pict.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] These are the exact words of one of the ablest supporters of the
Germanic origin of the south-eastern Britons, Mr. E. Adams, in a paper
entitled, "Remarks on the probability of Gothic Settlements in Britain
Previously to A.D. 450."--_Philological Transactions_, No. ciii.

[6] This root is important. As it means _sea_ in more European languages
than one, it has created a philological difficulty in the case of a very
interesting gloss, _Mori-marusa_, meaning _dead sea_; where by a strange
coincidence the same consonants (_m-r_) are repeated, but with a
difference of meaning.

Prichard, who drew attention to this remarkable compound, having stated
that a passage in Pliny informed us that the _Cimbri_ called the sea in
their neighbourhood _Mori-marusa_, inferred that the name was Cimbric;
and further argued, that as _mor mawth_ in Welsh meant the same, the
Cimbric tongue was Welsh, Cambrian, or British. As far as it went the
inference was truly legitimate; but the reasoning which led to it was
deficient. The likelihood of there being more languages than one wherein
both _mor_ meant _sea_, and _mor_ meant _dead_, was overlooked; though
one of the langua